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Frankenstein: Summary
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What happens in each chapter?Letter 1: Walton wants glory and is an ‘affectionate brother.’
‘Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more fervent and vivid.’
‘those poets who effusions, entranced my soul, and lifted it to heaven.’
‘and now, dear Margret, do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose?’
Letter 2: Walton wants a friend, story of the lieutenant, he ends the letter with ‘should you
never hear from me again.’
‘I have no friend, Margret. (…) I bitterly feel the want of a friend.’
‘she was bathed in tears, and throwing herself at his feet.’
‘or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the Ancient Mariner.’
Letter 3: Walton’s crew are so experienced they ‘scarcely remember to record’ issues with
the boat + Walton wants to own nature.
‘why not still proceed over the untamed yet obedient element? What can stop the
determined heart and resolved will of man?’
Letter 4: Victor arrives and is dying, Walton loves him, Victor tells him his story and Walton
secretly writes it down.
‘a very thick fog.’
‘a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic structure.’
‘an expression of wildness, and even madness.’
‘Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drunk also of the intoxicating
draught?’
Victors’ eyes have ‘melancholy sweetness.’
Volume 1:
Chapter 1: Victor’s parents are romantic + Elizabeth is an angelic baby.
‘and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic.’
‘my mother’s tender caresses and my father’s smile of benevolent pleasure while
regarding me, are my first recollections.’
‘I received a lesson of patience, of charity, and of self-control.’
‘looked upon Elizabeth as mine- mine to protect, love and cherish.’
Chapter 2: Victor has his childhood friends, Henry Clerval and Elizabeth. He thirsts for
knowledge and loves Cornelius Agrippa.
‘our Swiss home- the sublime shapes of the mountains.’
‘It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn.’
‘render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!’
‘Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible
destruction.’
Chapter 3: Victor’s mother dies after treating Elizabeth. He goes off to Ingolstadt to study,
and meets M. Krempe (mean) and M. Waldman (nice)
, ‘I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death.’
‘I believed myself totally unfitted for the company of strangers.’
‘I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge.’
‘in this enlightened and scientific era.’
M. Waldman: ‘the labours of men of genius, however erroneously discouraged,
scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind.’
‘it decided my future destiny.’
Chapter 4: Victor decided to make his monster 8 foot tall, and is obsessive to the point of
illness.
‘I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul.’
‘None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of
science.’
‘darkness has no effect upon my fancy; and a churchyard was to me merely the
receptacle of bodies deprived of life (…) food for the worm.’
‘Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman.’
‘I was like the Arabian’ who was being guided by ‘seemingly ineffectual, light.’ In
this story, Sinbad is buried with his dead wife and follows the light to escape, with the
light representing freedom. For Victor, it’s the secret of life.
‘how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier the man who
believes his native town to be the world.’
‘a new species would bless me as its creator and source.’
‘but I forget I am moralising the most interesting part of my tale, and your looks
remind me to proceed.’
‘I shunned my fellow-creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime.’
Chapter 5: The Crisis. The Monster is alive, Victor falls ill, Henry takes care of him.
‘anxiety that almost amounted to agony’ and ‘my candle was nearly burnt out.’
‘yellow skin (…) lustrous black and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness (…) watery
eyes (…) straight black lips.’
He dreams of ‘Elizabeth (…) hue of death.’
‘he might have spoken, but I did not hear.’
‘struggled furiously and fell down in a fit.’
‘they hardly know how ill you’ve been, and are uneasy at your long silence.’
Chapter 6: Elizabeth writes a letter of Victor and Victor feels better after going walking with
Henry.
Repetition of ‘poor Justine’ in Elizabeth’s letter.
M. Waldman ‘putting me to a slow and cruel death’ by complimenting him.
‘Clerval had never sympathised in my tastes for natural science, and his literary
pursuits different wholly from whose which has occupied me.’
‘he again taught me to love the aspect of nature (…) excellent friend!’
‘I bounded along with feelings of unbridled joy and hilarity.’
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